Fast Facts

The position of Jupiter and Europa changes as they and Earth travel on their orbits through the solar system. Europa, orbiting Jupiter, was approximately 4.3 AU (400 million miles or 640 million kilometers) from Earth at the time of these observations.

This is an artist's concept of the moon Europa, at right, with water-ice plumes erupting from its lower left limb at the 7 o'clock position. In the background, to the left, is Jupiter's orange, volcanic moon Io, and to the left of Io is Jupiter. Io's shadow appears in the center of Jupiter's face, left.